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Center for Community Engagement
University of Mississippi

    • Welcome to the Center for Community Engagement

    The Office of Community Engagement was founded in early 2020 after the University earned the Carnegie classification. This distinction made it necessary for UM’s burgeoning community engagement infrastructure to coalesce in a singular office. The office was converted into a limited scope center in 2021 to advance the institutionalization of community-engaged research, learning, and service and engaged scholarship. The Center for Community Engagement (CCE) is housed under the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, along with the Center for Inclusion and Cross-Cultural Engagement (CICCE). 

    The Center for Community Engagement is the University of Mississippi’s dedicated unit focused on elevating, celebrating, and sustaining excellence in community engagement across all Colleges, units, and departments. We carry out this work using a highly collaborative work ethic that emphasizes co-creation and collaboration in project development and delivery.  Our focus areas include: 

    • Managing a comprehensive, University-wide volunteer center; 
    • Developing, running, and assessing a variety of student facing programs, including a Community Engaged Leadership Minor and a Bonner Leaders Program;
    • Supporting faculty and staff in their efforts to include communities beyond the campus in their programming, teaching, or research;
    • Developing strategic partnerships to host place-based institutes that advance community-engaged research, learning, service, and civic leadership.

    Our work relies on building and sustaining long term, mutually beneficial partnerships with community-based organizations in the Lafayette-Oxford-University (LOU) community.

    The Division of Diversity and Community Engagement supports the mission of UM by transforming people, institutions, and communities through partnership, access, and engagement that fosters belonging, enriches learning and development, enhances research, and creates equitable opportunities for all.